(Minghui.org) As Mr. Yang Yongying is set to be released on September 6, 2022, after serving 17 years for exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, the authorities are planning to further persecute him.
According to an insider, the 610 Office in Mr. Yang’s hometown in Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province, is planning to seize him from the Hulan Prison on the day of his scheduled release. While it’s not clear what the specific actions the 610 Office plans to take against Mr. Yang, his family is calling on the international community to pay attention to his case.
Twenty years ago on April 20, Mr. Yang and four other Falun Gong practitioners in Hegang City, including Mr. Zhang Yaoming, Mr. Wang Shusen, Mr. Guo Zhongquan, and Mr. Guo Xingwang (also known as Guo Xingguo), risked their lives tapping into the local TV signal and played a 20-minute video debunking the Tiananmen self-immolation hoax that defamed Falun Gong.
Zhang Xingfu, the Party secretary of Hegang City, was infuriated. He gave the order to arrest the practitioners involved, claiming, “Even if you arrest 1,000 uninvolved people, you can’t miss a single one who took part in this!”
In a few days, over 500 local Falun Gong practitioners in Hegang City were arrested, including the above-mentioned practitioners except Mr. Yang, who escaped and was forced to live a displaced life.
The Gongnong District Court handed down heavy terms to the four practitioners in October 2002: Mr. Zhang was sentenced to 19 years, Mr. Wang to 18 years, Mr. Guo Xingwang to 15 years, and Mr. Guo Zhongquan to 13 years.
Also in 2002, Mr. Yang’s wife, Ms. Liu Chunlan, was sentenced to 7 years for her faith in Falun Gong when their son was only 13 years old and still in middle school. The teen was deeply traumatized by the persecution of his parents.
After three years of wandering about, Mr. Yang was arrested on September 7, 2005, and sentenced to 17 years by the Xiangyang District Court on June 30, 2006. He appealed to the Hegang City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold his original verdict on September 22, 2006.
Mr. Yang was first taken to the Harbin Prison on November 8 and then transferred to the Hulan Prison on December 1, 2006. At the Hulan Prison, he was forced to do long hours of unpaid labor and subjected to constant beating and verbal abuse.
Similar torture also happened to the other four practitioners who were given lengthy terms. Mr. Guo Xingwang and Mr. Zhang passed away in 2009 and 2022, respectively, after succumbing to the physical abuse and mental distress. Mr. Wang and Mr. Guo Zhongquan’s current situation aren’t clear. Although Mr. Yang has survived the 17 long years of hellish incarceration, the authorities still won’t leave him alone, but are attempting to continue to persecute him.
Mr. Yang Yongying Serving 17 Years in Prison for His Beliefs